What Is Success to You? How Do You Get There?

What is success to you?

Is it getting everything off your to-do list today? Or is it getting a new job? Those are two very different objectives.

I hope you’re one of those people that gets up in the morning looking forward to the day ahead. Even if it’s going to be a sucky day. In that case, success may mean the day isn’t as bad as you anticipated. I call that a win.

We each have a choice in how we face each day. You have the power to make it a success, even if it’s a small one. Or you can default to the woe-is-me, the world-is-against-me victim mode. If that’s your choice, your day is probably going to suck.

The late Dr. Wayne Dyer had a major impact on me learning how to change my thinking.

I was unable to think about a particular family member in a positive light. I’ll call this person Tracy. My intolerance for Tracy had gone on for some time when I read this quote from Wayne Dyer:

“When you change the way you think about things, the things you think about change.”

That statement took root in my mind like a squirrel burying nuts for the winter. My mind wrestled with it. Then tested it on my thinking about Tracy.

One day I realized I could deal with Tracy by thinking about Tracy differently. Tracy ceased to have power over me and my thoughts. I realized I just had to tolerate Tracy. I no longer cared what Tracy thought.

That was success for me, thank you, Wayne Dyer. You can learn more from Dr. Dyer here. You will be so glad you’ve met him.

I highly recommend his books. Click on the images below to buy them from Amazon now.

What is success to you, Sara Blakely?

Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, thanks her father for a question that helped her answer, “What is success to you?”

See if his question can help you. Learn how she used that question to create a business that led to Forbes naming her the youngest self-made woman billionaire in the world. Watch the video below or read the story on Inc.com.

What is success to you? Figure it out

What’s your reaction when I ask how you define success?

Is success a fancy car or the perfect job or finding your life partner?

If you’re like many people, you probably haven’t sat down and really thought through what true success is to you.

See if the message in this video can help you define what success is to you.

What is success to you? Is fear holding you back?

I hope the videos above have helped you get a better handle on what success is to you. If so, great!

What are you going to do now to achieve that success? What’s holding you back?

Brendon Burchard helps you tackle those roadblocks in this great video. Everyone should watch this.

If Brendon is new to you, read this excerpt from his website brendon.com. You will probably become a fan.

“Brendon Burchard is the world’s leading high-performance coach, a 3-time New York Times bestselling author, and one of the most-watched, quoted, and followed personal development trainers in history.

“Brendon is also in the Top 100 Most Followed Public Figures on Facebook, with over 10 million fans across his pages. He is the star of the most-watched direct-to-camera personal development show on YouTube. His videos have been viewed more than 100 million times. Over 2,000,000 students have now completed Brendon’s online courses and video series. …”

What is success to you? Final thoughts

I believe we need different levels of success to aim for. This morning I got the dogs to daycare, got air in my tires, picked up dry cleaning, and got home in 30 min. For me, that’s success on this day as I wait for the contractors to demo our master bath for a remodel.

Getting this blog posted will be another success–a lower-case success.

Slightly higher on the success ladder is helping you learn one new thing today. My goal is to every day help one person learn one new thing that will make his or her life better. That’s a Success in my book.

SUCCESS, all caps, in my life means a happy, healthy family. It’s good to add “employed” to that list, too. I can put a checkmark next to that one, too.

Photo by Daria Litvinova on Unsplash

To recap, I believe we have three levels of achievement.

The small wins each day–success (lowercase)

The bigger wins that go to your purpose–Success (with a capital S)

And the big kahuna–the foundation for the stories they’ll tell at your memorial service–SUCCESS (all caps)

What do you think? Please let us know in the comments section below.

⇒Action Plan⇐

First, check out the resources above.

Start small with success. Pick something you’re pretty sure you can accomplish today. You need to build your mental and emotional success muscles gradually. You wouldn’t go into a weight room and start off by lifting 100 pounds if you’ve never lifted before, would you?

Practice daily wins for a couple of weeks–really, do it forever.

While you’re winning at that level, use the ideas above to help you figure out what really makes you happy. What does Success (with a capital S) look like for you? How can you structure your life and work to hit that level of Success often?